Catch up

It's been a long while since my last update!
I feel bad about taking so long to come back but I'm lucky enough to have some of my friends who have checked out my blog during the break. Now it's the time to catch up.


About a month ago was the best time for cherry blossoms in Seattle. I had never imagined I would see such big clusters of them outside Japan except for D.C.. University of Washington seemed to be a local (and possibly even tourists) destination for the weekend. We rented a Zipcar(a car sharing service) for the trip, a Mini cooper for fun. Actually it's not as cool since the car has a big logo of Zipcar on the other side ...

When we got there the lawn  was full of people enjoying the flowers and the sun, and taking pictures.
It seems taking photos is becoming less stereotypical of Japanese recently. I see lots of people doing that with not just touristic attractions but seemingly ordinary things. My guess is that the popularity of Facebook which helps and encourages picture sharing, is one of the reasons. The guy with a SLR like a telescope must be Japanese.
We found some space and sat down for a while just like hundreds of other people there. This is how we experienced cherry blossoms viewing a month earlier than in Japan.